Tag: health

Heart disease: “You’ve come a long way, baby!” – or have you?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 3 Comments

Over the past decade, studies have suggested that almost twice as many women are now aware that heart disease is our leading cause of death. But awareness of this fact is still disturbingly low. For example, when cardiologist Dr. Lori Mosca of Columbia University Medical Center surveyed 2,300 women to measure their awareness of heart disease risk and to evaluate awareness trends since 1997, her results showed:

  • although awareness of heart disease has improved since 1997, one-third of women are still unaware that it is the leading cause of death in females
  • many women continue to believe that unproven therapies will reduce their heart disease risk
  • only about one-half of women said they would call 911 if they thought they were having symptoms of a heart attack, which Mosca said was “incredibly discouraging.” Continue reading “Heart disease: “You’ve come a long way, baby!” – or have you?” →

Study: statin drugs overprescribed for healthy adults

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 2 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

A study from Johns Hopkins Hospital may be very bad news for drug companies that make statin drugs for cholesterol management.(1)  Statins, of course, are considered the darlings of Big Pharma. I’ve heard cardiologists joke (at least, I think they were joking) that statins are so fabulous at lowering our LDL (bad) cholesterol that we should be putting the drugs into our drinking water.

Virtually all heart attack survivors are now routinely prescribed statins (whether they have high cholesterol or not) and there’s a major marketing push for docs to prescribe statins as cardiovascular preventive therapy for virtually all adults, particularly to reduce blood levels of the inflammatory byproducts called C-reactive protein. But the Johns Hopkins study lead investigator Dr. Michael Blaha has this important new warning:   Continue reading “Study: statin drugs overprescribed for healthy adults” →

Do you know what causes heart disease?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 6 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas

When I gently scolded Kentucky cardiologist Dr. John Mandrola recently over his cheeky criticism of diet soda (he’s a bike racer, what can I say?), we began a subsequent exchange of emails that led me to his blog.  There I found the simplest, clearest explanation of heart disease that I have yet discovered – particularly on the role that inflammation plays in causing our cardiac events. With the permission of this cardiac electrophysiologist (thanks, Dr. John), I’m reprinting his essay here, including his Primary Prevention Strategies, or “what regular people call healthy living”:   Continue reading “Do you know what causes heart disease?” →

How to communicate your heart symptoms to your doctor

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 6 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas

Here’s a news flash from the Prepared Patient forum of the Center For Advancing Health: your doctor is not a mind reader. And how you describe your symptoms can be just as important as what you describe. Physicians – and experienced heart patients – say you must be as detailed and descriptive as possible. For example:  Continue reading “How to communicate your heart symptoms to your doctor” →